A solar pond is a confined body of saline water that can collect and store solar energy by virtue of a naturally-occurring salinity gradient that inhibits convective heat mixing. The water increases in salinity, and therefore density, with increasing depth so that solar energy reaching the deepest water is effectively trapped there. This phenomenon has been observed in nature, and has been artificially reproduced in land-based ponds with dissolved salts for the purpose of generating electricity based on the heat differential between the relatively cool, low salinity, water at the surface of the pond and the hot, high salinity, water near the bottom of the pond. It has also been proposed to construct a floating solar pond in an inland body of salt water such as the Dead Sea or the Great Salt Lake where the natural salinity of the ambient water can be utilized; see, for example, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,949.